Death Angel. Of course, it’s a legally delicate means, but it’s the path we have to take to bring peace back to society.”
There were some twenty million people under his jurisdiction, he concluded, and “if a thousand social troublemakers go missing, I don’t think it will cause anyone any problem.”
The next day, Pichai denied that summary executions were occurring under his jurisdiction, or that he condoned such a practice. He blamed the deaths on armed vigilantes. The Nation stood by its story and, soon after, the Bangkok Post quoted a commander attached to the Muang Loei district police station (in the northeast, near the Laos border) as saying his men had killed sixty six suspected drug traders who resisted arrest between January and September (2001). Another eleven were reported missing.
In 2003, the prime minister declared a nationwide “War on Drugs.” Ninety days later, an estimated two thousand five hundred suspected drug dealers and abusers were shot dead. [See “Piss in a Cup,” page 119.] A year later, in what appeared to be separatist incidents in Thailand’s southern provinces, another five hundred were killed.
Every country has its bad cop stories and incidents of ugly violence. My own country of origin, the United States, surely is one of the most brutish and homicidal in recent history (dating from the 1700s). But no one ever said America was a peace-mongering nation. The U.S. is the biggest bully on the block nowadays and it seldom lets the world forget that, sending its peace-keeping missions and unilateral war-making troops wherever it decides, even when the United Nations calls its actions illegal. It’s also the world’s number one exporter of weaponry, has the highest per capita ownership of handguns, refuses to sign the nuclear proliferation and international land mine treaties, has the world’s largest military defense budget, etc., etc., etc.
Thailand, on the other hand, is known for its social and cultural restraints on direct confrontation. And with good reason. Because it is non-threatening, most of the time. I think most people agree that Bangkok may be one of the few major cities in the world where it is reasonable to say that no matter where you are, or when, you are comparatively safe. At least from muggings and the sort of street crime so common elsewhere that it doesn’t even make the morning papers.
But there’s this high incidence of and fascination with violence in Thailand. Why?
Kanjana Spindler, assistant editor, editorial pages, wrote in her weekly Commentary in the Bangkok Post (February 19, 2003), “The question comes to mind of just how violent a society we are. After all, we claim to be a predominantly Buddhist nation and if most people claim to subscribe to Buddhism’s basic tenets then we shouldn’t tolerate violence against one another at any cost. In reality, of course, we are probably much less Buddhist than we might like to claim.”
Dr. Kriengsak Charoenwongsak, the executive director of the Institute for Future Studies for Development, a regular contributor to the Bangkok Post, believes much of the popular manifestations of violence, such as Muay Thai, “is catharsistic: it allows people to vicariously satisfy their inner drives to succeed at any cost including untempered aggression. Instead of fostering feelings of pity on those weaker than ourselves, boxing is the practice of finding satisfaction in seeing the opposition being completely crushed, something one cannot do in real life because it is against moral standards and the law. Subconsciously, people who like boxing accept the idea that hurting other people is normal.”
William J. Klausner, a former professor of law and anthropology at Thammasat and Chulalongkorn Universities and an ex-editor of the annual publication of the Buddhist Association of Thailand, agrees. In Reflections on Thai Culture, published by The Siam Society (1981), he said that to fully understand the Thai personality, “we must appreciate that the ‘cool heart’ and the ubiquitous smile are quite often merely cultural masks covering emotional concerns related to dignity, face, perceived status. There is strain and tension; and release is sought, at least initially, through indirect methods. When these techniques are no longer psychologically satisfying or effective, extreme forces of violence may well result.”
Which makes Thailand sound like just about everywhere else on earth.
The Hustlers
One of the things I enjoy most about the Lonely Planet guides to any traveler destination is the section that appears early in the book about what it calls, almost whimsically, “Dangers & Annoyances.” This is the list of warnings given in an introductory section called “Facts for the Visitor” better known for its advice about “When to Go… What to Bring… Holidays & Festivals… and Things to Buy.”
“Although Thailand is in no way a dangerous country to visit,” the section begins in a recent edition, “it’s wise to be a little cautious…” Indeed. There follow warnings about women traveling alone, guests leaving valuables in hotel safes, credit card fraud, drugs and druggings, assault, insurgent activity and the violent Malay-Muslim movement in Thailand’s south… and in the nearby pages on “Health,” there are further cautions about everything from sunburn, prickly heat, and snakes to dysentery, cholera, viral gastroenteritis, hepatitis, typhoid, worms, schistosomiasis, rabies, TB, diptheria, bilharzia, malaria, dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, bedbugs and lice, leeches and ticks, and a supermarket of STDs and HIV/AIDS
One wonders why anyone gets on a plane.
Yet, for me, the biggest bummer are the touts and the scams. It doesn’t matter if the visitor is a backpacker staying in a five-dollar-a-night guesthouse or a businessman lodging in a five-star hotel, there are hard dollars and euros and yen to be spent and dozens of Thais lined up to take them, sometimes by any means possible. “Thais are generally so friendlly and laid-back,” Lonely Planet says, “that some visitors are lulled into a false sense of security that makes them especially vulnerable…”
“I’ve been coming to Bangkok for more than twenty-five years,” a friend who stays at one of those high-end riverside hotels told me, “and I have to say, it’s not as bad as India yet, but the way I’m bothered on the street by people who want to sell me something, for sure that that’s the way this country’s going. I bet I was approached twenty-five times today. It’s going to kill tourism, eventually.”
He’s right, of course, at least about the more aggressive hustlers, con artists and vendors. It might be mentioned that my friend’s quarter century in Asia was spent in the travel industry, so I think he knows what he’s talking about.
Whenever I travel, I miss Bangkok and I’m always glad to be “home” again, but I dread the journey’s end: getting from the airport to my flat. If I forget to give the driver my destination in Thai, chances are about fifty-fifty that he’ll try some kind of con: “forget” to turn on the meter or say it’s broken, fail to give me my change when passing through an expressway toll booth, or take the long way round to keep the meter running.
It’s worse, as my friend said, on the street. How many visitors are scammed by tuk-tuk and taxi drivers and freelancers on foot into visiting a jewelry shop owned by an “uncle” or a “cousin” who has a special sale going; others are told a new government tax will increase the price in just two days, etc. This happens with such frequency—and the gems and jewelry always turn out to be worth far less than what the sucker pays—a government office has been established to handle the complaints.